Palmer, Bertha Honoré (1849–1918)

Chicago socialite and philanthropist who was the main organizer of the Woman's Building at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Name variations: Mrs. Potter Palmer; Bertha Honore Palmer. Born Bertha Honoré in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 22, 1849; died of breast cancer in Chicago, Illinois, on May 5, 1918; daughter of Henry H. Honoré (a businessmanin hardware and cutlery) and Eliza J. (Carr) Honoré; graduated from the Convent of the Visitation in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., 1867; married Potter Palmer (an entrepreneur), on July 28, 1870; children: sons Honoré (b. February 1, 1874) and Potter II (b. October 8, 1875).

As a leading figure in Chicago society, Bertha Honoré Palmer was at the center of social events and causes in that city throughout her life. She organized benefits, held receptions, and hosted dinners to fete scions of American business and government, European nobility, labor leaders, and welfare reformers; she was also a supporter of Jane Addams' welfare work at Hull House, and was concerned with the issues of women in the workplace. But no activity engaged her more or better encompassed her vision and her skills than her role as chair of the board of "Lady Managers" at the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. Four months after the closing of the extended "world's fair," Governor John Altgeld of Illinois wrote to Palmer from the state capital at Springfield, praising her for the job she had done and assuring her that the cause of women's rights had been advanced a century by her work. Posterity, he wrote, would view "the delicate hand that directed this work [as] the hand of a genius." More than a century later, if such language seems a bit flowery, and the attitude condescending, evidence would indicate that the governor's sentiments were in fact not far wrong.

Bertha Honoré Palmer was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 22, 1849, the daughter of Henry H. Honoré, who was descended from a Louisville mercantile family, and Eliza J. Carr Honoré , who was related to the Edward D'Arcy family who settled 17th-century Maryland. As members of old aristocratic Southern families, both parents also took particular pride in the French portions of their lineage. Bertha Honoré had a younger sister, Ida , and four brothers, Adrian, Henry, Nathaniel, and Lockwood. Heir to a mercantile business in hardware and cutlery, in 1855 Henry Honoré moved his family to the frontier city of Chicago, where his enterprises in business and land development eventually expanded to include philanthropies involving the "planned parks and developments along with the boulevard system that girdles Chicago today."

Bertha attended St. Xavier's Academy in Chicago, and following the end of the Civil War traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Convent of the Visitation in Georgetown. Distinguished for her academic achievements in botany, logic, philosophy, astronomy, literature, algebra, and chemistry, she was one of six students in the senior circle who received highest honors at her graduation in June 1867. She was also chosen to be one of the harpists who performed the Grand March at the graduation ceremony. After her return to Chicago she became a popular debutante there, and soon was being courted by Potter Palmer, a wealthy young entrepreneur whom she had first met when she was 12. They were married at her family's home by the Rev. J.S. Sweeney on July 28, 1870. The ceremony, which was attended by 40 close friends, was followed by an elaborate reception and dinner for 500 guests. After a honeymoon tour of Europe, the newlyweds returned to Chicago. The following year, they were among the many who lost most of their property in the disastrous Chicago fire of October 8, 1871, but the couple and their parents were able to regroup and reestablish themselves with the same prosperity they had known before. After the reconstruction of the Palmer House Hotel, the Palmers briefly took up residence there while awaiting the completion of their new "castle" on Chicago's Lakeside Drive. Palmer and her husband had two sons, Honoré, born on February 1, 1874, and Potter II, born on October 8, 1875, the fourth anniversary of the Chicago fire.

The ostentatious new home of the Potter Palmers included an elevator and a barbican and turret in the European style, and its numerous rooms were decorated with tapestries, furniture, art and mosaics from Europe. (After the 1890s, the art would include a magnificent collection of French Impressionist paintings.) Reportedly, there were no outside locks on the mansion's doors. Benefit galas, dinners, and receptions were a way of life for the couple, and Palmer, entertaining in her diamond tiara and "rope of pearls," was Chicago's social queen. Ishbel Ross suggested the grandeur of Palmer's life with the title of her 1960 biography, Silhouette in Diamonds: The Life of Mrs. Potter Palmer.

The grandeur was not without substance, however, as the World's Columbian Exposition would prove. In April 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed into law a bill establishing the World's Columbian Exposition, intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the American continent. Chicago was chosen as the site for this event, which was to be dedicated on October 20–21, 1892, and to open for visitors in May 1893. Prior to its passage, Representative William Springer of Illinois had amended the World's Fair bill to include a "Board of Lady Managers," consisting of two delegates from each state and eight at-large members from Chicago. These new positions were intended to enrich the event with the input of women, a concept that was expanded to encompass the inclusion in the fair of a Woman's Building. When the Board of Lady Managers convened on November 20, 1890, Bertha Honoré Palmer was elected "president" and assumed the title of chair. For the next three years, this office was to engage her time and energy while providing a forum for her excellent management abilities and leadership skills.

Early on, the board decided that the Woman's Building would serve as a sort of museum exhibit illustrating the progress of women through the previous 400 years. At Palmer's direction, it was also decided that the building itself would be designed by a woman. The architect chosen was Sophia Hayden , the first woman to graduate from the four-year architecture program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her building was the first constructed on the fair grounds. Also under the management of the Board of Lady Managers—more specifically, Palmer—were two other installations, a Children's Building and a dormitory for women visitors. All were run "in the black."

The Palmers made a trip to Europe, working up a general enthusiasm for the exposition as they appealed to governments and to women in various countries to participate in the exhibits for the Woman's Building. A contemporary source said of Palmer, "few women and not many men have become so widely known and universally admired as Mrs. Palmer—all nations have received her and delighted to honor her, giving aid in securing exhibits for the success of this project." Royal dignitaries lent their influence in obtaining the contributions from their countries. Queen Margaret of Savoy (1851–1925) of Italy sent a treasure of historic laces, and Lady Ishbel Aberdeen of Scotland oversaw the establishment of the Irish Village, augmented with the handiwork of Irish women, on the exposition's popular Midway. The aristocracy of other countries—Austria, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, Japan, Siam (now Thailand), Egypt, Mexico, and nations of South America—all made substantial contributions, assembling what grew into a magnificent exhibit of women's art and handicrafts from around the world. In August 1892, well before the opening of the exposition, the Woman's Building was proclaimed "Woman's Triumph" by Harper's Bazaar.

Displays were also provided by most states, notable among them Utah, which offered a silk

exhibit, and Ohio, which contributed a pottery exhibit. Among the larger works of art were two great murals, one signifying "modern woman" by Mary Cassatt , The Modern Woman as Glorified by Worth and one of "primitive woman" by Mary Fairchild (MacMonnies) Low , Young Women Pursuing Fame. Cassatt, an American working in Paris who was associated with the French Impressionists, greatly admired Palmer's organizing powers and her determination that women should be seen as "someone" and not "something." Demonstrating this very point, the exhibits within the Woman's Building also included an extensive library of women's publications, scientific and mechanical inventions made by women, a model kitchen, and statistics of women's contributions to business and labor as well as examples of their contributions to the arts, industry, sciences, and reform.

Nearby was the Children's Building, which served both as a day-care facility and as an exhibit of the latest methods in child-raising and in medical and educational practices related to children, including the new kindergarten techniques. Children's art was exhibited as well as new methods of lip-reading for deaf children. The Woman's Dormitory provided clean, safe accommodations at reasonable prices for women attending the exposition without male companions.

It was the proudest moment of my life when I was told last Saturday, with a heartfelt handshake … by one of our visitors, that seeing me had given her more pleasure than anything at the Fair, except the Ferris wheel.

—Bertha Honoré Palmer

Reputed to be one of the most popular buildings of the Fair, the Woman's Building offered daily addresses by noted women speakers from America and other countries, as well as musicals, banquets, and teas. The building's roof garden was a favorite dining facility, notable also for featuring a dishwashing machine, which had been designed by a woman. Models of this same machine were used at a number of food establishments throughout the fair. In May 1893, the month the exposition opened, Palmer and her Lady Managers also sponsored the World's Congress of Representative Women, a week of intensive meetings featuring delegates from women's organizations around the world. The World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition, also under the auspices of the Lady Managers, offered a daily program of lectures, addresses and musical programs featuring women artists. The talks were later compiled in The Congress of Women Held in the Woman's Building.

More than 27 million people attended the Columbian Exposition during the six months it was open, from May 1, 1893, to October 30, 1893. By consolidating and displaying the achievements and interests of women in an unprecedented manner to such a wide audience, Palmer and her board created what turned out to be a catalyst for the entire woman's movement. Susan B. Anthony declared that the fair had done more for the cause of woman suffrage than had 25 years of agitation, giving the suffrage movement "unprecedented prestige in the world of thought." Speaking at the International Women's Congress in Berlin in 1904, a decade after the exposition's end, renowned sculptor Adelaide Johnson referred back to the event when she declared that the days were over when women artists were "looked upon with curiosity, classed, and perhaps indulged as freaks." She noted that "the great impetus in the United States of America that ushered so many women into this active work as professionals in the plastic forms of art, came with the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893."

At the closing meeting of the Board of Lady Managers, Palmer conveyed her satisfaction with the Woman's Building with considerable pride and a touch of humor, referring to the amusement ride that had been proclaimed the fair's symbol of American ingenuity:

Here we have welcomed and listened to the great thinkers of our own and other countries, and to musicians from every clime; we have welcomed guests both distinguished and humble, among the most pleasant gatherings being the popular Saturday afternoon receptions, when all were made welcome and we were overwhelmed by discovering the number of our friends, and the warmth of their kindly feeling. It was the proudest moment of my life when I was told last Saturday, with a heartfelt handshake, and with accents of deepest sincerity, by one of our visitors, that seeing me had given her more pleasure than anything at the Fair, except the Ferris wheel.

The particular focus on women's achievements was not repeated at the national and international expositions that followed, although in 1900 President William McKinley appointed Palmer the only woman member of the national commission representing the U.S. at the Paris Exposition. With her husband, she lived in Paris for two years while working on the commission, and for her contributions to the exposition Palmer was presented with France's Legion of Honor. She was only the third women in history so honored, after Rosa Bonheur and Florence Nightingale .

The Palmers' successful marriage was ended with Potter Palmer's death in May 1902. Palmer continued her social and philanthropic activities, serving as a trustee of the Woman's College of Chicago's Northwestern University and expanding her fortune and interests with land holdings and business ventures in Florida. Demonstrating her father's zest for development, after 1910 she invested in 80,000 acres in Florida, building up an industry of orange groves and a Brahma cattle ranch in Hillsborough and Sarasota counties that increased her $8 million inheritance from her husband to more than $20 million. Palmer also encouraged and sponsored the region as a recreation and retirement center. She remained close to her siblings throughout their lives, and eventually enjoyed the company of six grandchildren. Bertha Palmer died of breast cancer in Chicago on May 5, 1918, just short of her 69th birthday. The city's flag was lowered to half mast on order of Mayor G.W. Franklin. At her funeral at St. James' Episcopal Church, the Imperial Quartet sang two of her favorite hymns, "Lead Kindly Light" and "One Sweetly Solemn Thought," in a service that brought an epoch in Chicago history to a close.

sources:

Eagle, Mary Kavanaugh Oldham, ed. The Congress of Women: Held in the Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893. Chicago, IL: International, 1895.

Harper's Bazaar, issues published in 1892 and 1893.

Hinding, Andrea, ed. Woman's History Sources: A Guide to Archives and Manuscript Collections in the United States. Vol. 1. NY: R.R. Bowker, 1979.

Ross, Ishbel. Silhouette in Diamonds: The Life of Mrs. Potter Palmer. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1960.

Weimann, Jeanne Madeline. The Fair Women: The Story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition. Chicago, IL: Academy, 1981.

collections:

Sarasota Historical Commission has correspondence, Palmer's will, and clippings; Library Manuscripts Division of the Chicago Historical Society has letters and other documents relating to the business of the Board of Lady Managers which were kept by Bertha Palmer.

Harriet Horne Horne , women's biographer, Salt Lake City, Utah